As the fakes are increasing in circulation, it warranted a topic by itself and hence this new additional page.

Word of caution !!!

Old shaligramas that have been inherited are the best ones. In the sense that they are time tested for suitability. But, Shaligramas have been faked from time immemorial. Even some of the very old ones that were passed down to the generations have been found to be imitations. Not all the old are gold. After all one should know who he is worshiping.

There are plenty of fake shaligramas in the circulation now. There are few websites selling 100% fake shaligramas. They are made with m-seal or such chemical compounds. Some other type of cheating is to paste the broken real shaligrama pieces together. Know if your source is genuine before buying. Even with the known sources inspect the item well after removing the oil applied (usual trick to hide joints) by immersing the stone in the mix of water, coconut water and lemon juice and leave it for overnight. Following day check after it is dry.

There is another variety of cheap cheating by selling something called hiranyagarbha or ratnagarbha shaligrama. They appear like small dark balls (goli) showing semi transparent red interior while shown against light. These are actually human made glass or glass like objects. If you have some of them and don’t want to trust my claim, just hammer one of them (after all you have a few more left with you) and you will realize how it breaks like a glass piece rather than a stone. Even glass filling closed orifice can be seen on it like a thin line. The Shaligrama stones are unique as any other natural object, meaning, no two exactly look alike. If you find many same looking in a place you can stay away from them. Of course, the sellers are smart and will show the customer only very few even if they have plenty inside. If you have been worshiping some of them and still do not want to believe they are fake, least one can do is to keep them separated from the real ones you have. The real hiranyagarbha and ratna garbha shaligrama are very rare and when I get an opportunity will upload a photo of it.

People love the older ones that have been worshiped for many years. They have a very glossy, dark, bright shine and are attractive. Capitalizing this, sellers replace temple and mutts shaligramas with newer ones they have (of course, you will know how they can get hold of them, read $$$) and selling the older ones in the name of ‘antique’. Please do not encourage such buying and be part of stealing the temple or mutt property.

Expensive cheating !!!

The shaligrama enthusiasts are behind lakshmI nArAyaNa shaligrama and ‘some’ sellers try to take advantage of this demand. Since it is a really rare variety and hard to come by, they resort to tampering a genuine but non lakshmI nArAyaNa shaligrama to make it appear like lakshmI nArAyaNa. Some shaligramas have two openings close by each other having two chakras in each opening. They grind, chop, smudge the gap between the two openings and make it appear as a single opening. Buyers be aware of this before buying a lakshmI nArAyaNa. This small tweak gets them a bounty from unsuspected customers.

The following are genuine shaligramas but the natural fangs are drilled/caved in to appear like a pair of chakras. The other two chakras in the opening are real and hence the buyer will feel like its a genuine one with 4 chakras in 1 opening.

Some have resorted to make lakshmi narayan shaligrama by crushing stones and adding chemical additives for binding etc and give its shape and one vadana 4 chakras. It is very hard to identify this type of fake since the ingredient most part is crushed stone and it will behave like a stone only in all the visual tests. The below two pictures show two such shaligramas found on sale. One has to take it to a gemstone testing lab or geological lab to test for any chemical ingredients or it is just pure stone. Remember, all the one vadana 4 chakras are not lakshmi narayans and it requires an expert to tell which one is real lakshminarayan.

Alternative destructive test

Dip in boiling hot water, leave in water for 2 days , take out the same and some layer of m-seal can be removed evenly by hand or knife like sharp instrument .

After remove the complete layer , it will be easily seen that two M-seal shaligram are joint together & over lapped by other layer of M-Seal .

Stolen Shaligramas

People love the older ones that have been worshiped for many years. They have a very glossy, dark, bright shine and are attractive. Capitalizing this, sellers replace temple and mutts shaligramas with newer ones they have (of course, you will know how they can get hold of them, read $$$) and selling the older ones in the name of ‘antique’. Please do not encourage such buying and be part of stealing the temple or mutt property.

Contact Info

For type identification queries please send the pictures to shaligramas@gmail.com; The pictures should be from digital camera [NO mobile phone pics plz] with macro setting. Front, back, two sides, top and bottom pictures of the stone.
For all other queries please leave a comment in the site itself. Thanks.